Writings about Education and Life in New England

What do you think the most important class is in school? Math? Science? Social studies? How would you know, anyway? Because I don’t mean the class that seems the most important. I mean the class that the school and the community demonstrate, through their actions, is the most important. There’s one way to know: You’ve got to follow the money. There are two places we

Let me tell you about the college student that I hope all my high school students become. In fact, let me tell you about the college student I wish I’d been. He only graduated two years ago but he is already a published author. His name is Zachary Wood and his new book is called Uncensored: My Life and Uncomfortable Conversations at the

It doesn’t seem as though there’s a lot of talk online about the VTDigger news story that came out this week: The Vermont NEA is calling to delay the Proficiency Based Learning (PBL) graduation requirement, which is set to go live for next year’s seniors. My sense from talking to colleagues is that many of us expected something like this to happen, perhaps even sooner

A few years back, Chuck Scranton, long-time Vermont high school principal and now the Executive Director of the Rowland Foundation, gave a TEDx talk called “The Immovable Mountain.” It’s a great metaphor for what educators seeking change are up against. What Scranton was referring to was the mammoth weight blocking the path of any would-be school reformer or innovator. It represents a lot of obstacles.

As a first-year teacher, I’d say one of the worst role models you could have is Miss Caroline from To Kill a Mockingbird. You don’t want to be Miss Caroline. (But chances are, during your first year, at least for a while, you probably will.) Remember her? Miss Caroline is Scout’s teacher in To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee’s characterization of this type is timeless:

It’s not unusual for educational reforms to be exercises in bar-raising. Most are — that’s why we do them. We don’t always say we’re “raising the bar”; we might say we’re improving instruction, setting better goals, designing better curriculum. But it’s the same idea: we’re improving. Proficiency based learning (PBL), the new grading system in Vermont, is no exception. We put it in place to

Why do people say, “Everyone should be able to have school choice”? First of all, they do. Second of all, why is choice a good thing? I know why they say this, of course. We live in a country that fetishizes the market, distrusts government, bows down to innovators, looks askance at credentials. We’re a country of gated compounds, semi-automatic weapons, sections of New York

Whew. There’s a lot to digest in “Designing Our Future: A Blueprint for Transforming Vermont’s Education System.” First it was an internal memo obtained by VtDigger and then after that leaked, the agency decided to publish it for real. They are careful to remind us that this is not an actual proposal. They call it a “thought experiment.” Here are a few takeaways: 1. It

Here is what fatherhood is like with an infant. A few weeks back, my younger brother, who is single, texted me. It was Saturday night, he was sitting in a bar in Harvard Square, waiting on a date, sipping a cocktail. I texted him back: “I just pushed James around the kitchen for 20 minutes in his stroller while running the vacuum cleaner because this

The Trump Plan for Education Makes a lot of Sense Whenever I hear people say, “education hasn’t changed in 100 years,” I’m always amused. These people have no idea how many truly fascinating and innovative reforms have come and gone, and come and gone — all long before you or I were even born. Take one initiative which at its height affected 15% of